Imagine you possess the ability to walk into any situation and solve a problem with a clear understanding of what’s important to those involved. You’ve anticipated what they’re thinking and what you need to do to get everyone on your side. In reality, we all have this superpower and use it every day. When we’re at work, we prioritize and shape our actions based on the power and influence of those around us. Prior to a meeting or presentation, we consider the audience and anticipate questions and concerns. Throughout this process, we identify those involved, analyze their interests and expectations, and develop appropriate dialog; this is stakeholder management. Understanding the methodology and techniques behind stakeholder management gives us additional tools to use in our professional and daily lives. Since its part of our natural thought process for daily decisions, we often dismiss stakeholder analysis and forget that there are qualitative and quantitative tools to assist project leads, project managers and commanders in gaining an understanding of the problem they face and the environment around the decision.

Stakeholder analysis is a technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project.  It identifies interests, expectations and influence of the stakeholders and relates it to the purpose of the project. It also helps identify stakeholder relationships that can be leveraged to build coalitions and potential partnerships… Project Management Book of Knowledge

A stakeholder management plan includes identifying relevant people, groups and organizations (stakeholders), analyzing and prioritizing each stakeholder based on power, influence and interest in the project and then developing an engagement strategy for dealing with those stakeholders. Each identified stakeholder has preferences and needs, which potentially affect the final decision. Since a project manager usually has no formal power over their stakeholders, they need to develop and establish relationships and use influence strategies to achieve project objectives. This requires balancing the wants, needs and concerns of each stakeholder throughout the process. Developing a strategy for managing expectations and leveraging assistance is vital. The diagram below depicts a quick mapping of the stakeholder management process.

Stakeholder Identification

 Stakeholder management is about finding workable, efficient, and sustainable solutions for a given problem or task. Your stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations, who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. Simply stated, a stakeholder is someone (anyone!) who will be impacted by your project. Identified stakeholders may not always be directly involved, but those on the sidelines can still impact the process and should be managed during your analysis.

The benefits of a thorough stakeholder analysis far outweigh the consequences of obscuring stakeholders all together. The key benefit is that the project team can provide the appropriate focus towards each stakeholder to anticipate their current and future needs. Discovering stakeholders later in a project may not only hinder progress but is also a major contributing factor of scope creep – the continuous or uncontrolled growth of a project’s scope.

Identifying stakeholders can be performed in many ways, but the most widely used method is brainstorming. The most efficient place to start is often with the project sponsor. From here, the project team can branch out to discover other stakeholders. Stakeholders can be broken down into two broad categories: internal or external. Internal stakeholders are entities within an organization or team (e.g. leadership and team members), while external stakeholders do not exist within the organization but are still affected by our decisions (e.g. customers and suppliers).

Stakeholder Identification Questions

– Who has interest?

– Who can benefit?

– Who can be adversely affected?

– Who can impact the effort?

– Who has power/influence?

– Who controls the resources?

Let us consider someone choosing to stay in a job vs. finding a new one and think of all the people who have an interest in this decision. The study sponsor is the individual determining whether or not to change jobs. Internal to their organization is their family, while external influences encompass current and possible future workplace employees, as well networking contacts. The following chart lists identified stakeholders, their roles (internal/external), interest and power (authority) on the decision, and any other relevant notes discovered during a brainstorming session. The interest and power columns are colored with “high” in green, “medium” in orange, and “low” in red to allow for quick recognition of the relationship between interest and power, which we will use later in the analysis.

Stakeholder Analysis

 Stakeholder analysis is the process of categorizing identified stakeholders, determining to what degree each’s interests should be taken into account, and sorting them by the impact project decisions will have on them. Since our decisions will have some measure of impact on each stakeholder identified, it is important to analyze all power, interests, expectations, priorities and influence to ensure we have a clear picture of all stakeholders.

Although power and influence can often exist together, in stakeholder analysis they mean different things. Power deals with the authority the stakeholder has over your project. Influence deals with the relationships between stakeholders and how that can influence decisions. The matrix below is similar to the stakeholder identification matrix but provides additional details; interrelationships between stakeholders, how they can help or hurt the project and a current and desired assessment level of where they stand. The assessment level columns in our example is based on a simple number scale of -5 to 5, with -5 being strongly opposed to the project, 0 being neutral, and a 5 being strongly supportive of the project.

Analyzing stakeholders using this type of matrix accomplishes several things: 1) it prioritizes stakeholders in terms of power, interest and impact; 2) it identifies what’s important to each stakeholder and their potential influence on others; 3) it helps identify relationships between stakeholders; and 4) it assesses their current attitude toward the project and where you’d like to improve their opinions.

The matrix we created is full of important information but sometimes a quick visual graph helps us see the overall picture. The power interest graph below is directly populated using information from the Stakeholder Analysis Matrix. This tool visually depicts stakeholders in terms of the power they have over the project and the interest they have in the project. Categorizing stakeholders using this method helps the study team understand stakeholder’s positions and provides a broad understanding of how stakeholders may react. This allows the project team to engage and communicate with different stakeholders in an effective and meaningful way to benefit the project. Properly categorizing your stakeholders allows you to anticipate which ones are likely going to support you, and those which could hinder your project.

For our job decision example, the power interest graph highlights the close relationship between the spouse, children and extended family. It also depicts the potential influence that your network contacts can provide to both increase the interest of a future manager and serve as a supporter to reduce any negative reactions from your current manager. The arrowed lines represent relationships between stakeholders, so you can see who has influence over others. The graph also shows where network contacts can help ease the current manager’s concerns and smooth any transition that occurs.

It is easy to see how the tools in the stakeholder analysis build on each other to provide insight into all actors involved in the project. The initial stakeholder identification table captures everyone involved. The stakeholder analysis matrix helps us expand our understanding of the stakeholders. Finally, the power interest graph highlights relationships between stakeholders, which helps guide the study team’s interactions. Since all projects are different in scope and scale, project managers can simplify or expand the tables and matrices to capture all the relevant information and communicate it between team members.

Communications Planning

 The next step is to develop a communications plan for how and when to talk to each stakeholder. To manage each stakeholder effectively, it is important each one feels involved, heard, and valued. To communicate effectively with stakeholders, project teams should have a consistent, formal and simple process. This type of communications plan helps build and maintain trust and keep stakeholders active in the pursuit of achieving project objectives. Communication plans may need to vary between audiences and as the project matures, the study team should revise the plan as necessary. It is also helpful to obtain agreement from each stakeholder on the plan.

Questions: How will you communicate?

– Who is your audience?

– What tool(s) will you use to communicate?

– What is your purpose?

– What is your key message?

– What is the timing and frequency of the communications?

Below is an example of a communications plan. Notice that certain columns have repeated again from our previous tools. Stakeholders power/interest and current/desired assessment level are important categories that should continually be monitored and accounted for as a project moves forward. The other columns specify the communications plan with each stakeholder, the frequency with which to talk with them, and who is responsible for contact.

Stakeholder management is an iterative process that lasts the lifetime of a project. Key stakeholders who have the most power and influence over a project can help champion your efforts with additional resources, help prioritize tasks, and clear issues before or as they arise. Communication is the key to keeping stakeholders informed and happy.

In Conclusion

 Stakeholder management is a naturally occurring component of any project and something we do every day without realizing it. As a project lead, taking an analytic and deliberate approach to this process helps you think about characteristics, wants and expectations of stakeholders that may otherwise be overlooked. It also helps share that information with other team members to ensure everyone has a clear understanding of your strategy to engage influencers and decision makers.

Benefits of Stakeholder Management

– ID the most important stakeholders and develop a plan to secure buy-in.

– Establish a communications plan tailored to each.

– Anticipate how stakeholders will react to change due to the project.

– Develop a plan for “winning over” difficult or uninterested stakeholders.

– ID interrelationships and potential overlaps between stakeholders

Another key benefit from identifying stakeholder expectations is the ability to anticipate how they will react to changes. In our job decision example, we identified that the current manager wants a smooth transition in order to avoid disruptions. We can now think through ways to mitigate those fears and develop a strategy for highlighting that to your manager. This may also inadvertently ease your stress during the project because you’ve anticipated the situation and know there is a plan to address it.

The use of this type of analysis and strategy development does not need to be limited to projects and formal decision-making processes. For example, you can use these techniques prior to professional meetings and briefings to identify attendees, what’s important to them and questions or concerns they may raise. You could also use a simple version of the stakeholder analysis matrix to perform an internal assessment of your organization. Understanding what’s important to your peers and employees helps in allocating tasks based on interest and anticipating concerns. The more effort you put into understanding the environment around you and how that influences your actions, the better you can anticipate and plan for future events.

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Steger, U.S. Army, is an Operations Research and Systems Analyst (ORSA) and is currently assigned as a Senior Military Analyst at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He holds a M.S. in Operations Research from Kansas State University, an M.A. from Webster University and a B.S. from the United States Military Academy.  LTC Steger is also a trained Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. His previous ORSA assignments include the Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Headquarters, International Joint Command (Afghanistan) and the TRADOC Analysis Center (TRAC).

MAJ Daniel Weiss is a U.S. Army Operations Research and Systems Analyst (ORSA) and is currently assigned as a Combat Operations Analyst at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He holds a M.S. in Information Systems and Operations Management from the University of Florida, an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma and a B.S from the United States Military Academy. MAJ Weiss is also a trained Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. His previous assignments include the United States Military Academy Admissions Office, the 35 Theater Tactical Signal Brigade (TTSB) at Fort Gordon and 6-52 ADA BN at Fort Sill and Ansbach, Germany.